India has the second-largest population in the world, and yet it is one of the hardest to define, a country so full of nuances and contradictions that to make a concrete statement about its cultural norms is almost impossible. It’s hard to say something that applies to every striation of the many sub-ethnicities, religions and practices that India calls its own. Or, as Vogue India fashion features director, Bandana Tewari, puts it, “India is a continent, not a country. The length and breadth of it vary in all kinds of cultural expression, from clothing and food to everyday customs. Differences manifest on many levels.”

Indeed, there are over 1.2 billion people who live in India, and countless more who have enriched the various pockets of the world with their heritage — one of strength, color and vivacity. And yet, we’ve often been hard-pressed to find India represented outside of the few sensationalized stereotypes that surround it.

This is especially true within the fashion industry, where Indian models have long been somewhat of an anomaly. Yet 2015 saw an emergence of several rising stars, including new faces Bhumika Arora, 28, and Pooja Mor, 24, both of whom turned heads on some of the most coveted catwalks during the spring 2016 season. Their growing popularity arrives hot on the heels of Neelam Gill, the first Indian face of Burberry, and Kelly Gale, a half-Indian model who’s a regular on the Victoria’s Secret runway. After years of virtually no representation by the major agencies, Indian girls are finally beginning to make a collective mark on the industry. But their recent success raises the question: Where have Indian models been until now?

One of the reasons (beyond the industry’s historical lack of diversity) is that India is home to a deeply patriarchal society, one in which the actualization of gender equality — though written into the Constitution and made better in recent years — still has a ways to go. Beyond its metropolises like New Delhi and Bombay, many women are encouraged by their families to dress especially modestly, and not to walk on the streets by themselves or take taxis alone. In recent years, international headlines were frequently made about the government’s archaic treatment of rape cases.

But progress doesn’t happen overnight. And little by little, a shift in attitudes, driven primarily by the India’s youth, has begun to take form across the nation, particularly as it concerns women and their career choices. “[Indian] families have always weighed in heavily on solid careers in industries like medicine, engineering, and finance,” says international mega-star Priyanka Chopra, now also the star of ABC’s Quantico. “But a lot has changed over the years, and there is starting to be a lot of support for careers in the arts, entertainment, sports, music, and fashion.”

This turning point in the country’s history could mean that high fashion modeling — essentially, careers that center on international recognition for one’s beauty — could one day, across the board, be little to no problem at all. Or, it could mean something a little more complicated, as India’s multi-faceted culture has long proved.

For Bhumika, it’s a little bit of the latter. She hails from Karnal, a conservative town located in northern India, where she says her longtime dream of modeling is still viewed by most as inappropriate and immodest. “My own parents gave me a lot of freedom with fashion growing up, but, for the most part, modeling is a very bad thing there,” she reveals. “Parents don’t let their kids wear anything considered fashionable. It’s seen really only as a distraction from studying, or a way to attract boys. Because people thought it was a disrespectful career, they used to scare me about how models are treated, so I initially decided I would never go for it.”

As the most fashion-forward of her peers, Bhumika felt alienated by her community and eventually decided to attend college in the bigger, more liberal city of Chandigarh. “I didn’t know how I was going to grow professionally or socially if I stayed in Karnal, so leaving was the first step,” she recalls. While in college studying business administration, she submitted a few selfies she had taken for fun to a small café-circulated magazine. Once they were published, Bhumika was encouraged to leverage her business education as a bargaining tool to convince her parents to let her take a shot at her hidden passion. “Had modeling not worked out, I would’ve likely gotten a job in human resources, or tried to run my own business,” she says. “The latter of which is still a possibility, of course.”

For now, though, fashion remains Bhumika’s true dream. “When I was younger, I would watch the models walking the runway on FashionTV in secret,” she says of her earliest memories in modeling. “I didn’t even know why they were walking! But just to see them do that thing—I got goosebumps.”

Pooja, who grew up only a few hours away, had a vastly different experience in her hometown of Bareilly, an artsy destination known for also launching Ms. Chopra. She experienced a completely different atmosphere—that is to say, one of support, after winning a local beauty pageant. But, like Bhumika, she studied engineering in college before she even considered asking her parents for permission to pursue modeling.

“I told my brother first, and we convinced my mom, and then finally my dad gave in,” she says, grinning. To this day, despite her early success, Pooja is glad she put school first. “Modeling changes you so much, and having my degree gives me extra support,” she says. “It is totally a backup plan. It’s comforting to know that, if I want to, someday I can go back and be the same person I was before.”

As superstars in their own rights, both Pooja and Bhumika have already overcome and achieved more than they ever imagined, with a deep love for their homeland as their driving force. “I feel like I’m doing my country proud,” Bhumika shares. “Taking risks for this has made me want to work even harder.”

“All I hear is, ‘You girls are so gorgeous. Why don’t we have more Indian models?’” she says with a coy smile. “Everyone always wants to tell me about their trips to India, because they know I understand the spirit and color that it possesses. Now I love those things all the more.”